Nara and Fushimi

Again, we are experiencing a wet day - but just off and on rain. The good news is that it is warmer today than yesterday. After breakfast, we traveled by bus to Nara, which was the capital of Japan in the 8th century. It was also the eastern end of the Silk Road. We first went to another World Heritage Site, the Todaiji Temple. Inside the Temple hall is a 50 foot tall cast bronze statue of Buddha. It sits in the world's biggest wooden structure in existence. Before walking through the gates of the temple grounds, we were greeted by the local deer. Vendors sell packages of deer food crackers and the deer are especially hungry for their treats in the morning. Naturally, Dave drew the biggest crowd (see photo)! This must be a very popular site for school field trips as there were hundreds of children going to visit the Buddha and laughing at the antics of the deer. Inside the temple, there was an unfinished pillar with a small tunnel at the base. The children all lined up to squeeze themselves through the tunnel as it is supposed to bring good luck. One boy said hello to me so I said, "How are you?". He clutched at his stomach and replied, "I'm hungry!" I told Junko what a charge I got out of his reply and she told a story about the prime minister of Japan a number of years ago. He was practicing his English so that he could greet President Clinton who was coming for a state visit. Upon meeting the president, the prime minister said, "Hello" and instead of saying, "How are you?", he said "Who are you?". Non-plussed, President Clinton replied, "I'm Hilary's husband.". Assuming that President Clinton had said he was fine, the prime minister replied, "Me, too!" Our next stop was to the Kasuga Shrine (Shinto) located in a beautiful forest in which thousands (2000 standing and 1000 hanging) of stone lanterns are lined up on the way up the hill to the shrine (see photo of hanging lanterns). We were extremely fortunate to witness some children coming for a special blessing. Young babies are brought to the shrine to show the spirits that a new child has been born and then girls are presented at ages 3 and 7 and boys at age 5 for a special children's' blessing. We saw two little girls, a boy (one of the girl's brother) and a baby coming to the shrine today (see photo of the brother and sister). We went into the city center of Nara for lunch at a delightful Japanese restaurant. We had steam baskets of pork and sprouts in one and fish, pumpkin, potato, sweet potato and dikon radish in the other. There were also pickles, rice, soup and green tea. For dipping there was a soy and citrus sauce, but the most interesting and wonderful tasting was a sesame sauce. We were given a bowl with sesame seed and a wooden pestle to grind them. We then poured the sesame sauce over the freshly ground seeds making a delicious sauce for the pork and vegetables! On our drive back to Kyoto, we stopped at the Fushimi Inari Shrine to see 20,000 red torii gates placed one after another along a trail going up the mountain. We only walked a small part of the trail, but it was absolutely beautiful (see photo)! This is the shrine that you see the main character going through in the movie, "Memoirs of a Geisha". The shrine just celebrated 1300 years of existence! When we got back to Kyoto, the bus driver dropped some of us off at the Kyoto Handicrafts Center. Here we were able to pick up a few items to bring home. Dave didn't feel all that well so he went back to the hotel. When we were all done shopping, the store sent us back to the hotel in a cab on their dime as their shuttle bus was full. What a great service! Dave still wasn't feeling great so I went out to pick up some crackers and juice. John, Lana and Kelly went for dinner at an Italian restaurant across the street and then went to the vending machine in the hotel for an ice cream dessert. The Japanese a very big on vending machines. They are all over - inside and outside of buildings. You can get water, juice, snacks, beer, green tea, coffee, ice cream - all from vending machines which are kept immaculate by the companies that fill them. I had never seen a vending machine being polished until I came to Japan! Dave is still sleeping so I hope with all of the extra rest, he will feel better tomorrow.